A wide-angle view of the train just after everyone boarded, and just before leaving Chicago Union Station.

Out past Naperville, lots of open country in Northern Illinois.

Now riding on the BNSF Ottumwa Sub, we cross the mighty Mississippi River from Illinois into Iowa. The bridge in the background is carrying US 34 into Burlington, IA, which would be the next stop for the train as well.

A BNSF Yard just outside Denver, CO.

The above was NOT a Photoshop trick! I had a polarizer filter on the camera not realizing it wasn't necessary and thus looking out the tinted glass windows of a Superliner I Coach coupled with the filter yielded this interesting "rainbow effect". This was in a BNSF yard near Denver.

Though tough to see, from the left to center of the photo is our train making a sharp turn just before arriving in Denver. Shortly after this photo was taken, I removed the polarizer filter as it wasn't needed when shooting outside the coach windows as long as there was decent sunshine which thankfully, there was.

The Zephyr sitting at Denver Union Station. This was a service stop/crew change point for the train, and also a good chance to get a picture of the train while everyone else had a smoke!

The BNSF Executive Train was sitting also at Denver Union Station as shown in this photo. Denver has signs posted to help passengers find their appropriate car when boarding, thus the "512" sign in the right of the photo.

Denver Union Station as viewed from the station platform.

Shortly after leaving Denver, the hills can be seen in the distance.

More hills behind those homes.

Entering the mountains, there is a freight train ahead of us that we would eventually overtake.

The road crossing here is Blue Mountain Drive in Arvada, CO.

Now tell me the truth, can you see all of this from a tiny window in a 737 at 37,000ft?

Are we having fun yet???

Here we are climbing yet another hill!

Mountains everywhere!

Gross Dam, located near Eldorado Canyon State Park. Behind the dam is Gross Reservoir.

Another view of Gross Reservoir.

A now-closed down schoolhouse just West of Tolland.

Another road crossing, this is near the Moffat Tunnel as evidenced by the higher elevation we were at and the snow on the ground because of it.

Coming out the West end of the Moffat Tunnel, it looks like a "January day in Buffalo" with snow everywhere!!!

A couple Ex-Rio Grande boxcars near the west portal to Moffat Tunnel.

As we started to drop elevation, the snow melted and the clouds started to break up again.

Rounding another bend, you can see the train in the left of the photo. This is coming into Fraser, CO.

The Amtrak Station at Fraser-Winter Park, CO. The actual station building is across the street from the platform.

Fall colors look amazing on this route!

Aspen trees in the above photo are plentiful in these woods!

It's as if you could touch those clouds!

You gotta ride this to believe it!

Just one of the many small towns you pass along the way.

Starting to see some iron in those hills, hence the red-colored rocks.